Personality in Greek Epic, Tragedy, and Philosophy

The Self in Dialogue

Christopher Gill

Personality in Greek Epic, Tragedy, and Philosophy

The Self in Dialogue

Christopher Gill

Description

This is a major study of conceptions of selfhood and personality in Homer and Greek Tragedy and Philosophy. The focus is on the norms of personality in Greek psychology and ethics. Gill argues that the key to understanding Greek thought of this type is to counteract the subjective and individualistic aspects of our own thinking about the person. He defines an "objective-participant" conception of personality, symbolized by the idea of the person as an interlocutor in a series of psychological and ethical dialogues.

Personality in Greek Epic, Tragedy, and Philosophy

The Self in Dialogue

Christopher Gill

Reviews and Awards

"This is an extraordinarily rich and fascinating book, one which is destined...to alter the course of work in the several classical disciplines on which it impinges."--Bryn Mawr Classical Review.

"..if we are to grapple intelligently with the idea of 'personality', 'selfhood' or 'character' in an ancient text, we first have to sweep away a large and dusty residue of contemporary assumptions and prejudices. Christopher Gill...has now provided us with a sturdy and well-constructed broom with which to do so. It is the strength of Gill's study that he does not argue at the level of theory alone, but discusses in detail any number of non-philosophical passages in ancient literature earlier than Plato and Aristotle (especially epic and tragedy) to see whether his hypothesis can stand."--The Literary Review